00:00 Everyone thinks the decision to return to WWE was difficult.
00:06 It was not.
00:14 Ask why I won't turn heel? It's because you jeered me when I needed it the most.
00:20 In AEW it seemed like Cody was pursuing that number one good guy spot, but how could he do that if he couldn't be the world champion?
00:27 And the AEW fanbase had already chosen some of their favorites at the time like Adam "Hangman" Page to be a much more relatable character, someone they found more likable.
00:37 And Cody felt like someone who, just as an executive, put himself in that position.
00:42 Even if he wasn't putting himself in that position.
00:45 A fundamental understanding you need to know is that the AEW crowd and the WWE crowd are different but a lot of the same.
00:52 The AEW crowd tends to be more lifelong wrestling fans who are going into the deep depths of different things.
00:59 They want more than just the hit songs from their favorite wrestling acts.
01:03 They want something a little bit out of the norm.
01:06 Whereas WWE loves to hear the hits.
01:09 They love to see the character as the defined characters.
01:13 Sure, there's an overlap to an extent, but when looking at a much broader global fanbase, there's a major difference.
01:20 Cody's character is considerably more suited to a WWE presentation now.
01:25 And where there's a larger audience of kids and dudes and moms, in AEW you have a lot more of the dudes who follow the dirt cheats and know what's going on behind the scenes.
01:36 And then AEW feels they have to play some of that out on camera.
01:39 For WWE fans, Cody Rhodes is a family man.
01:43 A blue-collar superhero good guy you'll want to root for.
01:47 One who is ideally an earnest new version of John Cena in a way.
01:53 If you look at some of AEW's biggest good guys, they don't necessarily fit that bill.
01:58 They're R-rated badasses and there's nothing wrong with that.
02:02 Think Hangman Page, Eddie Kingston, Jon Moxley, Darby Allin.
02:05 They don't fit into that box of the conventional good guy.
02:09 And to a large extent, they're really more anti-heroes than they are white meat baby-faced good guys.
02:15 And there's nothing wrong with those two different categories.
02:18 One of the harsh realities of Cody's situation with AEW is that he had a little bit too much of a creative freedom.
02:23 He didn't really have a governor on what he was doing.
02:26 We know that sounds a little harsh, but the fact is that not every superstar is going to benefit from having complete creative control.
02:34 Cody had an established spot on a roster on an internationally televised show, but was still limited by his own design.
02:42 Rhodes was still confident in all of this.
02:45 In all of this upheaval, he remained a reliably fantastic performer on the way out.
02:50 He did it a classy way.
02:52 He went to war with Sammy Guevara over the TNT Championship in a ladder match.
02:56 In the build around that fight, he cut a promo that may be one of the best that AEW has ever presented, if not the most underrated.
03:04 With the fans still resenting them, he reminded them and all of his detractors of his role in making All Elite the game changer that it became,
03:13 setting the record straight, at least the way he saw it.
03:17 He reflected on this exit interview promo as it's since been called, and an interview in 2023 with Sam Roberts, saying,
03:24 "I look at it now and I call it the exit interview.
03:27 And I think maybe selfishly, egotistically, maybe I wanted to remind them, 'Hey, I appreciate that the company's changed. I do.
03:35 Please know, though there is no company, had these things hadn't happened.
03:40 Now other stuff had to happen.
03:42 Jericho had to do this stuff.
03:44 The Bucks had to do their stuff.
03:46 Kenny had to do his.
03:47 Mox had to do his.
03:49 He's a big part of it, too.
03:51 I don't give him enough credit, but I just wanted them to know."
03:54 And boy, did he let them know.
03:57 Cody knew he had to leave and return to WWE to fully cement his legacy within the industry.
04:03 And only a few years later, that decision paid off in a way that maybe he would not have imagined at the time.
04:10 The question is this.
04:12 Now that he has finished the story in WWE, building to a new one, what is the next chapter of his story going to bring?
04:20 Will WWE fans get tired of him being the good guy, the Captain America of WWE, and turn on him, too?
04:27 Is that simply just a natural occurrence within the cycle of wrestling content?
04:32 And will he refuse to turn bad this time?
04:35 The circumstances are considerably different from his AEW days, but only time will tell.
04:40 And let's remind you that Cody Rhodes knows how to play the bad guy.
04:44 He can be dashing once again if need be.
04:47 One thing is for sure, the next chapter of Cody Rhodes' career is going to be an extremely interesting one to follow.
04:53 What do you think?
04:54 Let us know in the comments below.
04:56 Thanks for watching.
04:57 [outro music]
Comments